House

R(A) 18 Live Performances Saturday

Asian Boys Vol. 3: Happy Endings

Went for the Matinee on its second last day of its run. I don't watch plays often, the last one I remembered watching was Quills. Throughout the play, I looked at the set and how the performers performed and I kept doing a subconcious juxtaposition of theatre with film. In theatre, there is not much you can do with sets, so that leaves you pretty much with just the actors, who will be the ones determining the reviews the play will receive. For production design, I suppose this play employs pretty creative props like specific doors for specific characters and having things being sent down using cables. The transitions, where actors will stand in place ready for the next scene in full view while waiting for the previous scene to end, was not really good in my opinion. But its not confusing so what the hell. The story is good but got a little bit too activist-esque at the end and I kinda lost focus at that point to start noticing other things like shoe-laces. Well, the dialogue was pretty strong but I got lost sometimes thinking about what the characters was arguing in the first place. The acting has to be and definitely is the best attribute of this play. Everyone has their own charisma and charm and was very memorable in their own way. It truly 'not just gay theatre. It's great theatre.' Overall experience of watching this play was insightful and enjoyable undeniably due to little gay jokes. The message is strong. I was told to buy the programme booklet. I did.
D.D.D. Caught D.D.D, a live dance performance art show by Takao Kawaguchi and Fuyuki Yamakawa. I must admit the whole show kept me super on-the-ball as the performance uses high level sounds and strobbing lights. In contrast to the quietness and darkness when nothing is going on, it creates a tension of anticipation. The dance is a little painful to watch as we see the dancer contort his body into 'knots', and the vocal from the other performer is loud and to me, beyond description (not as in wonderful, but really weird). The vocal is a kind of sound made when you execute double throat singing (i.e. khoomei). The show explores the human body and pushes the limit of its exploration. There are segments of lesson, like bio class, explaining how the SA nodes of the heart gives out electric signal and how the performer uses it to control the light bulbs in front of him. We see the insides of the vocal performer, literally, and that complements the dance performance following that featuring tubings which eventually pours oils onto the dancer, which just prior to that had stripped bare to show us the vulnerabilities of the human muscles in one segment. Basically nothing like I've ever seen.
This Is Indie Art. http://www.kawaguchitakao.com/works/ddd.html